Toujours Tingo

by Adam Jacot de Boinod

Why would Germans accuse you of being like the donkey getting cross with a rabbit? Who would a Spaniard tell to go and fry asparagus? And when might the French claim they are without a radish?

Furthering your knowledge of the world's unusual idioms, Toujours Tingo will also explain how ordering 'lamb' in Ethiopia may see a cow delivered to your table, and how politicians in Sweden may be encouraged occasionally to g�ra en hel Pudel ('do a full poodle') with some humble apologising. Covering such wide-ranging linguistic necessities as arguing, raising children, working and dining out, and filling all those gaps that English leaves thoughtlessly unplugged, this book's charm would - for Russians at least - be eziku ponjatno (obvious even to a hedgehog).

Genres: Nonfiction, Language, Linguistics

336 pages, Hardcover

Published March 24, 2010

About the author

Adam Jacot de Boinod is a British author, notable for his works about unusual words, such as his last name. Usually known as Jacot, he has written three books, the first two looking at words which have no equivalent in the English language, and his third book which reveals unusual words in English.

Reviews

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being someone who sometimes even reads the dictionary when bored, this book was a great read to not only satisfy me for entertainments sake, but also my interest in linguistics and the etymology of words and phrases. LANGUAGES ARE SO INTERESTING!!! I loved the fact that there were some phrases out there in other languages where you simply CAN'T even imagine how it got coined (like that one word in Finnish which describes the length in which it takes for a reindeer to urinate or something, I'm pretty sure I just completely butchered that word, sorry Finns), and some phrases I actually do understand in Swedish that just make me go YES THIS IS THE LANGUAGE OF MY PEOPLE (I'm talking about that one phrase about being stuck in a predicament: when translated literally is "having your beard stuck in the postbox"). Either way, it was a great laugh reading this, and I'm pretty sure my friends who were sitting with me in the library as I was reading this book were amused at my failed attempts at reading out phrases in German or Italian (which eventually led to "Okay you guys get the point, I'm a disgrace to European languages"), but what really makes this book such an interesting read is that one way or the other, it shows you how fascinating different languages and cultures are, because there had to be a reason in the first place that those words and phrases were created.

[Felucca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am torn when it comes to this book...

I DO like it, since it is actually very entertaining and inspiring.
However, it is also obviously and unforgivably inaccurate when it comes to hard facts.

I am Swedish and can vouch that the author gets almost 50% of ALL Swedish words featured in the book WRONG. Sometimes it is just the spelling, but other times he completely misunderstands the meaning of a word or even invents his own words.

If he gets so many words wrong in a language that belongs to the Western world, I hate to think how inaccurate Toujours Tingo is when it comes to tiny tribal languages of Africa or Asia...

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readers who love words will find lots to enjoy here. This is not a book to be read cover to cover. Just pick it up and be amused in any section. My favorites include: an octopus in the garage or the notion that the word "male" means bad or evil in Italian

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1705874...

Sequel to The Meaning of Tingo, with more strange words from other languages. I actually found this a bit more impressive and better organised than the first volume, with some very interesting idioms which I may try out for myself: the Puerto Rican expression for being very nervous which translates as "like a crocodile in a wallet factory"; or the Swahili saying that the day you decide to leave your house naked is the day you bump into your in-laws. And I loved the French tongue-twister, "Combien de sous sont ces saucissons-ci? - Ces saucissons-ci sont six sous."

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Untranslatable words from almost every language. Tingo - meaning to borrow things slowly, one at a time, until the lender has nothing left.

[Loki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still a lot of fun, but not as amusing as the first volume. But it's hard to go past a book full of fascinating foreign idioms.

[Virginprune · Rating 2 out of 5]

A gem for the smallest room. I should probably check out the original Tingo sometime.